- Cycling Summary -

Objective:
Ride as much as allowed by the Weather for a 4 Day Adventure.
We Actually Planned on 3 Days of Riding with a Spare Day of Supplies.
We ran into 2 days Bike Pushing Due to Long and Deep Dry Sand Beds.

Highlights

Day 1:

Easy Start along US-550 parallel to the Rio Puerco (Pig)

All Dirt, Hard Pack, or Sand after turning onto CR-1102

We only saw standing water once after US-550

Semi-Arid or Arid country, all day.

Ride over the San Luis Mesa

Ride by Cerro Cuate, Rabbits and Birds

Find water and top off at a BLM Well (they're rare)

Wild Camp between BLM Well and Ojo Frio Spring

Day 1 - Cuba to Wild Camp near Ojo Frio Spring

Above: "Crows and long shadows greeted us this morning".

Above: This was our first crossing of the Rio Puerco; it does have some water here. We will ride parallel to the Rio Puerco (Pig River, named for the Wild Javelina in this area) for most of the morning but a mile or two away.

Above Left: We just turned right (SW) from US-550 onto CR-1102.

Above Right: We will generally head southwest on the same hard dirt road all day, but the counties change once or twice a day and the road becomes unnamed.

Above Left: Nice road.

Above Right: Time to double check the map and our position.

Above Left: Beetle.

Above Right: Rain Wash.

Above: The bain of all cyclists, Goat Head Spurs, tens of thousands of them.

Above Left: Good road.

Above Right: Two big millipedes made the line tracks. I see a possible Deer or Antelope track and perhaps a mix of mouse and bird tracks - It's sort of a busy area.

Above Left: A variety of sun flower.

Above Right: Bad road, sand.

Above Left: A rain wash, probably a week old.

Above Right: Purple daisies and the only butterfly around found them.

Above Left: Cholla Cactus still in bloom in October.

Above Right: Rugged country.

Above: I believe that we were on Mesa San Louis looking south or southeast toward the Rio Puerco River Valley.

Above Left: Water - we're always remembering where we last saw water.

Above Right: When we ride at the base of hills, mesas, or mountains the road was always firm.

Above: We get to ride on a paved road for about 4 miles; it is an Oil/Gas Pipeline Service Road. We will turn right just before we run into Rio Puerco.

Above Left: Still on the Pipeline Road.

Above Right: We turned off toward Ojo Frio Spring.

Above Left: Cabezon Peak.

Above Right: Cabezon Peak puts us at the 32.6 mile map point from Cuba.

Above Left: Terrain transition.

Above Right: Suddenly we have transitioned from Semi-Arid to Arid terrain.

Above Left: Arid Terrain...

Above Right: ... And back to Semi-Arid Terrain. We were approaching the Rio Puerco again (higher level water table).

Above Left: We entered BLM land. We were within a mile of a BLM Water Well with public access.

Above Right: The Artesian Well is at the top of this ridge (work work work).

Above Left: The well's faucet.

Above Right: The 10 Liter Water Bladder was full (on top pf the rear rack) and all 7 of the 1 Liter water bottles were full. I calculated the weight once at 45 pounds of water with a full load of water. We will be looking for a place to camp at this point. There was a notice that states No Camping at the well site.

Above: We rode about a mile to find a nice piece of earth to camp upon (for a wild camp).

Above: We camped at the top of a hill that had cedar trees and the camp had been used before us. We had a good camp setup and everything went splendidly. We slept well this night.